Gaining a ute-load of nifty building skills has been one of the biggest bonuses of building a tiny house for Castlemaine’s Rainer Cook Tonkin.
The uni student started building his own tiny abode back in mid-2020, with a little help from his carpenter father, Bernard Tonkin.
The Express visited Rainer and his tiny house project shortly after he embarked on the project about 18 months ago, and on Friday paid Rainer a repeat visit to see how things were coming along.
It was immediately obvious that much progress had been made with the neat little unit on its dual-axle trailer as good as complete – and just a couple of details left to add.
“Yes I have sampled living in it,” says Bernard who’s also busy working at Castlemaine’s Sprout bakery and for a fencing contractor, while getting set to take up tertiary studies in education.
“It feels like a sort of treehouse, which is awesome.”
Measuring 6 by 2.5 metres and 4.1 metres in height, the petite residence has been made using a large percentage of recycled materials in keeping with both Rainer and Bernard’s ethos around sustainability.
“It just needs an electrician now to put in the electrical fixtures, and the shower needs to be tiled,” Rainer says.
“I’m also going to put in a little fireplace, a tiny ship’s stove, and I need to put in some architraves and some seals on the windows.
“I had no idea what I was doing when I started and really skilled up.
“It’s awesome to get those skills – and it looks great. Unique.”
Features include interior lining boards made using recycled hardwood fence palings, a cute little reclaimed stained glass window, and window sashes made of aged reclaimed Oregon…
“It’s the linseed oil,” Rainer explains of the tiny house’s interior fragrance that complements its in-built ambiance.
The entryway compact french door once adorned the residence of Melbourne AFL footballer Christian Petracca.
“He was renovating his house and the builder, his brother, was selling them,” Rainer says.
“All the windows are double glazed so it’s as thermally efficient as possible.”
Now, having pretty much completed the project, Rainer says he’s planning to sell the tiny house – which was anything but tiny in terms of the labour that went into working up the recycled materials for application.
“There was so much labour that went into working on the reclaimed materials,” the tiny house owner-builder notes.
“I’m now planning to finish it through February and sell it to purchase a house with my sister. Hopefully in Castlemaine.”
